426 Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv. 



must be confessed, an inviting aspect. Nothing 

 but the conviction of its being absolutely neces- 

 sary could reconcile us to the idea of ten millions 

 of people condemned to incessant toil, and to the 

 privation of every thing but absolute necessaries, 

 in order to minister to the excessive luxuries of 

 the other million. But the fact is, that such a 

 form of society is by no means necessary. It is 

 by no means necessary that the rich should be 

 excessively luxurious, in order to support the 

 manufactures of a country ; or that the poor should 

 be deprived of all luxuries, in order to make them 

 sufficiently numerous. The best, and in every 

 point of view the most advantageous manufactures 

 in this country, are those which are consumed by 

 the great body of the people. The manufactures 

 which are confined exclusively to the rich are not 

 only trivial, on account of the comparative small- 

 ness of their quantity, but are further liable to the 

 great disadvantage of producing much occasional 

 misery among those employed in them, from 

 changes of fashion. It is the diffusion of luxury 

 therefore among the mass of the people, and not 

 an excess of it in a few, that seems to be most 

 advantageous, both with regard to national wealth 



him to modify some of his former ideas on the subject of popula- 

 tion. He states most justly (ch. xxv. p. 539.) that mankind will 

 in every country breed up to a certain point of distress. If this be 

 allowed, that country will evidently be the happiest^ where the de- 

 gree of distress at this point is the least ; and consequently, if the 

 diffusion of luxury, by producing the check sooner, tend to dimi- 

 nish this degree of distress, it is certainly desirable. 



